An excellent street portrait.
It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul.
I'm not sure about that, but more and more I think the (unsmiling only) look of the mouth tells a lot more.
Combining the two, I get the impression that the girl looks very serious for a kid her age.
Partly because she's letting a stranger take her photograph, true.
But perhaps her life IS very serious. Combined with the fact that she is out on the street earning money for the family by peddling stuff to the public- her life might indeed be difficult. Or at the very least- serious.
Shouldn't she be in school? Or playing at home?
I can only guess.
Charlie
PS- I like that your image is so thought-provoking.

Charlie,
I could not agree with you more. If you look at the lower right hand side of the image you will notice the corner of a dollar bill. I intentionally framed it in the image as a reminder that the little girl was working when I took this image. I gave her the dollar as that was the price of the bookmarks she was selling. After paying for the bookmark I asked if I could take her photo. While taking her photo, I felt a little sadness while wondering why she was out in the streets as a vendor, as opposed to being in school.